The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 27, 2010; 11:22 AM
— Only 1 cent of each dollar the U.S. is spending on earthquake relief in Haiti is going in the form of cash to the Haitian government, according to an Associated Press review of relief efforts.
Less than two weeks after President Obama announced an initial $100 million for Haiti earthquake relief, U.S. government spending on the disaster has tripled to $317 million at latest count. That’s just over $1 each from everyone in the United States.
Relief experts say it would be a mistake to send too much direct cash to the Haitian government, which is in disarray and has a history of failure and corruption.
“I really believe Americans are the most generous people who ever lived, but they want accountability,” said Timothy R. Knight, a former US AID assistant director who spent 25 years distributing disaster aid. “In this situation they’re being very deliberate not to just throw money at the situation but to analyze based on a clear assessment and make sure that money goes to the best place possible.”
The AP review of federal budget spreadsheets, procurement reports and contract databases shows the vast majority of U.S. funds going to established and tested providers, who are getting everything from 40-cent pounds of pinto beans to a $3.4 million barge into the disaster zone.
“We are trying to respond as quickly as we can to this catastrophe of biblical proportions by mustering all of the resources that the United States government can bring to bear, first on rescue leading into relief, which is where we are right now, and hopefully seamlessly into recovery,” said Lewis Lucke, U.S. special coordinator for relief and reconstruction.
Major relief efforts were launched within hours of the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed at least 150,000, devastated the capital of Port-au-Prince and affected a third of its 9 million people. Behind each effort has been cash and contracts, airline tickets to be purchased and ocean freighters to be leased.
Of each U.S. taxpayer dollar, 40 cents is going to the U.S. military, paying for security, search and rescue teams, and the Navy’s hospital ship USNS Comfort.
Another 36 cents funds US AID’s disaster assistance – everything from $5,000 generators to $35 hygiene kits with soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste for a family of five.
Just over a dime has already been spent on food: 122 million pounds of pinto beans, black beans, rice, corn soy blend and vegetable oil. When purchased in bulk, the actual food prices are relatively low. Pinto beans, for example, cost the U.S. government 40 cents a pound when purchased in 5 million-pound batches last week.
Getting the food to Haitians – paying for freighters, trucks and distribution centers, and the people to staff them, took another 10.5 cents from each dollar.
Initial disaster spending was aimed at saving lives; now the spending is shifting to recovery. The Obama administration wants to put about 1.5 cents of each dollar directly into Haitian quake survivors’ hands by paying them to work. One program already in place describes paying 40,000 Haitians $3 per day for 20 days to clean up around hospitals and dig latrines. That project also includes renting 10 excavators and loaders, at $600 each, and 10 dump trucks at $50 a load.
One penny of each dollar is going straight to the shattered Haitian government, whose president is sleeping in a tent while struggling to organize an administration that was notoriously unstable even before the earthquake. A final half-cent funds three Dominican Republic hospitals near the Haitian border, where refugees have been begging for help.
The U.S. is providing the largest slice of a global response that totals more than $1 billion in government pledges. The European Union’s 27 nations are contributing $575 million.
The U.S. also has long been the largest donor of ongoing foreign aid that Haiti depends on for up to 40 percent of its budget, with more than $260 million in U.S. money last year aimed at promoting stability, prosperity and democracy.
Private money also is flowing into Haiti – U.S. charities have raised $470 million for disaster relief, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the U.N. says total international giving – spent and pledged – has topped $2 billion.
The U.S. government funding flows through federal agencies that administer $2.6 billion already appropriated in the 2010 budget for foreign disaster relief, said Thomas Gavin, a spokesman at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Gavin said there are no plans to ask Congress for more money.
“At this point, the costs incurred are well within the levels appropriated by Congress for emergency disaster assistance,” he told the AP. “It’s like your checking account, your family budget – you decide, ‘OK, I’m going to spend “X” number of dollars on my groceries.’ Well, we, as a country, set this money aside.”
One cent too many, if you ask me. There should be an independant organization with members from multiple nations in charge of every penny spent. Aristide and Preval, and as I read lately, Bellerive are all not worth trusting with anything, let alone aid money in cash form.
IT IS IRONIC HOW TWO SISTERS IN THE SAME HOUSE CAN BE SO DIFFERENT AS TO HAVE ONE CAUGHT UP IN THE MYSTERY SURROUNDING THE EARTHQUAKE IN AND AROUND EUREKA, CALIFORNA AND ANOTHER ONE ON TOP OF THE QUAKE IN HAITI. THEY BOTH WERE MIRACULOUS AND MYSTERIOUS AT THE SAME TIME. ONE WAS DEVASTATING AND THE OTHER HARDLY ANY DAMAGE WHEN BOTH EARTHQUAKES WERE CENTERED IN THE WATERS. THE WATERS COULD BE THE REASON THE QUAKE WAS NOT SO DEVASTATING IN THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AREA WHILE THE WATERS DID NOT HALT OR STOP THE DAMAGE IN THE CARIBBEAN. THERE IS SOMETHING VERY SPOOKY ABOUT ALL OF THIS. RIGHT NOW THE SO-CALLED SCENIC HIGHWAY OR SCENIC ROUTE OF HIGHWAY 101 NEAR THE PACIFIC’S COAST IS BEING HERALD THE WORST STRETCH OF HIGHWAY IN THE COUNTRY. THE AREA OF THE QUAKE IN THE EUREKA AREA WAS JUST OFF THE COASTAL AREA AND SOMEWHAT BURIED TO THE EXTENT THAT IT DID VERY LITTLE DAMAGE TO THE INLAND AREA. THIS IS VERY SPOOKY, THE WATERS, THAT IS, THE BIRTH WATERS, MAYBE? WHEN A NATION, ACCORDING TO MATTHEW 24:7, HAS BIRTH PAINS THAT IS ONE THING, BUT, WHEN A NATION HAS THE WATERS BEFORE THE PAINS OR INSTEAD OF THE PAINS, THAT IS DIFFERENT. THE AREA OF EUREKA SEEMED TO SPARED THE PAINS IN THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE THAT JUST PRECEEDED THE HAITI DEVASTATION. IT IS TAX TIME IN THE STATES. MATTHEW IS REALLY BUSY, YOU WOULD SAY? COULD IT BE DEEMED THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST? IN HEAVEN, ALL THINGS ARE MADE RIGHT, BUT, WHAT ABOUT PARADISE AND MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY THIEVES, NOT JUST TWO THIEVES AT TAX TIME, MATTHEW? A LOT OF CHEATING ON THE TAXES, MATTHEW? THE CHILDCARE DEDUCTION, MAYBE? THE SNOWS OF THE UNITED STATES THIS YEAR ARE EXTRAORDINARY AS IS THE ENTIRE WEATHER PICTURE IN THE COUNTRY. THE SNOWCAPPED MOUNTAIN AREAS ALONG ARKANSAS, TENNESSEE, KENTUCKEY AND ALL THE WAY TO THE CAROLINAS TO THE EAST COAST ARE HEAVY THIS YEAR, COULD THE SNOWS BE TAKING THE PLACE OF THE WATERS AND THAT IS THE REASON THE QUAKE IN AND AROUND EUREKA WAS NOT SO BAD? LASTLY, SHOULD HAITIANS DO AS PAUL SHIRLEY SAYS AND USE A CONDOM ONCE IN A WHILE TO STOP BUILDING “SHACK-TOWNS”? (NO OFFENSE SHAQUEEL O’NEIL). SOMETIMES GOD WILL SAY “I LOVE YOU” THE HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE WAY OR STYLE (AFTERALL, GOD IS GOD IS HE NOT), BUT JESUS HAS ADMONISHED US “TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”, (WHY WAIT FOR GOD TO SPELL IT OUT TO YOU, HIS WAY?) WE MUST REMEMBER THE COVENANT IS A TWO-WAY DEAL AND NOT A ONE WAY MATTER. IT IS CONDITIONAL ON WHAT WE DO IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD, THE FATHER AND LOVE TO TO OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, AND HE HAS SAVED US, HAS HE NOT? AMERICANS ARE GENEROUS TO A VAULT IN SITUATIONS, BUT, THIS SITUATION IS NOT THE USUAL AMERICAN RED CROSS CALL, THIS IS EXTREME, REGARDLESS THE ORIGIN. WE STAND IN AWE OF GOD, THAT IS THE REASON FOR THE USUAL HALT OF WAIT IN THESE TYPE OF TRAGEDIES. FOR WE ARE, INDEED, AT A LOSS TO EXPLAIN AND THUS ACT OR REACT, ACCORDINGLY. AT THIS WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS BEFORE ANY MOVE IN ANY DIRECTION. WHILE MONEY IS NEEDED AND DESPERATELY SO, THIS IS NOT THE USUAL BUY AND SELL THING. HOW CAN WE MONEY -VALUE LIFE WHICH WE KNOW SO VERY LITTLE ABOUT IN THE FIRST PLACE? REMEMBER, LOVE IS AN ACTION WORD, THE WORD MOVES MOUNTAINS, COMMANDS OCEANS AND CAUSES THE EARTH TO SHAKE AND THE SKIES TO THUNDER, CAN YOU HANDLE IT? THE LOVE, THAT IS? THE LOVE OF GOD SHOULD BE SPREAD ABROAD IN OUR HEARTS, THAT WE CAN HANDLE. WE HAVE NOT BEEN DOING THAT THIS CENTURY, THIS MILLENNIUM, THIS YEAR, THIS DECADE. HOW ABOUT IT, TIME TO CONFESS? FIRST STEP IN THE DIRECTION OF FORGIVENESS, CONFESSION. WE MAY HAVE A LOT TO CONFESS, DON’T YOU THINK. FORGIVENESS IS SUCH A CLEANSING THING. FORGIVE US, OUR DEBTS, INCLUDING THE HAITIAN DEBTS, DON’T YOU THINK? FORGIVE US, OUR TRESPASSES, DON’T YOU THINK? SUCH A CLEANSING THING, TRY IT. YOU MIGHT LIKE IT. SPEAKING OF THE WATERS, GOD DID PREPARE THE FISH BEFORE FOR JONAH, DID HE NOT? IT WASN’T JUST ANY OLD KIND OF FISH, THE WHALE, I MEAN, GOD DID PRE-SELECT AND PREPARE THE FISH BEFORE JONAH GOT THERE, DID HE NOT? PRETTY MUCH THE SAME WAY, HE HAD THE RAM IN THE BUSH, (BUSH) FOR ABRAHAM AND ISAAC, DID HE NOT? I HAVE A LEO-THE-LION MYSELF AND I KNOW DANIEL WAS MADE READY FOR THE DEN, DON’T YOU THINK? FIRE IS A POWERFUL POWER, BUT THE FURNACE WAS MADE READY IN ADVANCE FOR THE THREE (THERE IS A FOURTH ONE IN THERE). HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY, BUT, MY WORD SHALL REMAIN. NOW, ISN’T THAT THE HONEST-TO-GOD TRUTH, RICHARD?